Archive for the ‘Art News’ Category

Deborah Orloff, professor of photography and associate chair of The University of Toledo Department of Art, has received an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council for her body of work, “Elusive Memory.”

According to the Ohio Arts Council website, the excellence awards “are peer recognition of artists for the exceptional merit of a body of their work that advances or exemplifies the discipline and the larger artistic community. These awards support artists’ growth and development and recognize their work in Ohio and beyond.”

Orloff said the $5,000 grant will be used to expand her “Elusive Memory” series and to exhibit it nationally.

The work was inspired by an experience she had following the death of her father in 2007 when she was preparing a eulogy for his funeral. While drawing upon specific memories, she realized all of them were directly connected to photographs, causing her to wonder if she remembered the moments, or if the pictures had created false memories.

“I wanted to make work about this phenomenon, but the project didn’t actually take form until many years later,” Orloff said.

“About five years ago, I inherited thousands of neglected prints and slides that had been in my father’s basement, where they were damaged by flooding. I started photographing them in the studio, not knowing what I would do with the images, but hoping to salvage some of the family pictures for posterity,” she said. “It wasn’t until I saw them enlarged on a computer screen that I recognized their poignancy and greater relevance: I saw metaphors for loss and the fragmentary, ephemeral nature of memory.”

Ohio Citizens for the Arts Foundation has released the results of a study developed in conjunction with the Center for Regional Development and Bowling Green State University that shows the true power and impact of Ohio’s creative industries. The report proves that Ohio’s creative industries are much more than regional amenities. In short, they are powerful economic engines. Key findings from the report show that the arts in Ohio have experienced significant growth in the past few years and now account for more than $41 billion in economic activity while supporting nearly 290,000 jobs annually. Additionally, the arts and creative industries generate over $4.5 billion in federal, state, and local tax revenue annually.

Some TOLEDO highlights of the report:

The creative economy generates $831 million in the Toledo MSA,

It supports 12,065 jobs and supplies more than $466 million in wages and proprietor income,

Advertising and public relations lead the creative industries. The sector is responsible for $183 million dollars and supports 944 jobs in the Toledo MSA,

Congratulations to CAL/SVPA faculty, Dan Hernandez, Thor Mednick, Denise Ritter-Bernardini, Stephen Sakowski, and Matt Yockey on being recognized in 2018 as faculty making Outstanding Contributions in Scholarly and Creative Activity. President Sharon Gaber and Provost Andrew Hsu sponsor the special recognition and the arts faculty received 20% of the University-wide awards.

Hernandez’s paintings explore the visual dialog between religion, mythology, and pop culture. He is represented by Kim Foster Gallery in New York City. His work is exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions and has been written about in a number of publications including ARTnews, HyperAllergic, Artillery Magazine, Arte Fuse, Gizmodo, Der Spiegel. Dan was selected for an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellency Award in 2011 and in 2015. Dan Hernandez creates intricate tableaux that blend religious iconography with the contemporary visual language of video games, two genres which somehow collapse seamlessly together in farcical send-ups of culture and society.

Thor Mednick, PhD, Art History

Thor Mednick specializes in the art of nineteenth-century Denmark, he has published on painters such as P.S. Krøyer and Vilhelm Hammershøi, and on the relationship of agricultural reform to nineteenth-century Danish landscape painting. He is the co-curator of From the Golden Age to the Modern Breakthrough: Danish Paintings from the Collection of Ambassador John L. Loeb, Jr. (New York, 2013) and Jorforbindelser: Dansk maleri 1780-1920 og det antropocene landskab (Denmark, 2017-2019).He is a former Fellow of the American-Scandinavian Foundation, the Ambassador John L Loeb, Jr Foundation, and the American Philosophical Society, and a legatee of the Danish Ministry of Culture. He has been a Visiting Scholar at the University of Copenhagen and the University of California at Los Angeles, and a Visiting Professor at Fuglsang Museum and Faaborg Museum, in Denmark.

In 2017, Mednick was invited by Dr. Karina Lykke Grand, Assistant Professor of Art History at Aarhus University, to be the international consultant on a major research project on art and national identity in nineteenth-century Denmark. The project has been given a grant of more than $1,000,000 (US) to support Dr. Grand, a doctoral student, a post-doc, and travel and research expenses for Mednick and another scholar from the University of Copenhagen. The grant comes from The Independent Research Fund, within the Danish Ministry for Higher Education and Science.

Dr. Denise Ritter Bernardini, PhD, Voice

Denise appears on both the concert and opera stage in music of many periods. She is known for her ability to sing a variety of styles, her brilliant high notes, pure tone, communicative warmth and musical intelligence. She has been a performer throughout the US with extensive Oratorio experience under the batons of world renowned conductors such as Robert Shaw and John Rutter. Her recent oratorio performances have included Verdi’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Pergolesi’s Magnificat, Bach’s Missa in A Major, Dvorak’s Te Deum, and Mozart’s Requiem.

Denise has been a soloist in prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops as well as the Actor’s Club in New York. A recent performance of her one-woman classical cabaret show took her to Leibnitz, Austria where she performed for the International University of Global Theater to an audience representing thirty-two different countries.

Stephen Sakowski, MFA, Theatrical Lighting

Stephen Sakowski has worked as the Lighting Director or Assistant Lighting Director for the major entertainment/arts events listed above. His event and television lighting work, recognized at the highest level of production, is transferred to his university productions as well.

Stephen has served as the Lighting Director/Assistant Director for the NBA All-Star Games. The National Basketball Association, (NBA) is a leading sports organization with an All-Star Game viewing audience of 7.175M in 2015, 7.614M in 2016 and 7.751M in 2017, respectively. Lighting for these half-time performances have been for some of the most internationally-known performers, including: Cirque du Soleil, Sting, The Roots, and John Legend.

Stephen has also won awards for his lighting design associated with The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, (KCACTF). KCACTF is a national theater program involving 20,000 students from colleges and universities nationwide annually. For 47 years, the organization has served as a catalyst in improving the quality of college theater in the United States. KCACTF has grown into a network of more than 700 academic institutions throughout the country. The regional groups are funded and administratively support by the Kennedy Center.

Matt Yockey, PhD, Film Studies

Yockey’s research focus is on Hollywood genres and fan studies. His essays on these topics have appeared in journals such as The Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies, The Velvet Light Trap, CineAction, Transformative Works and Cultures, Journal of Fandom Studies, The European Journal of American Studies, and Studies in Comics, as well as the anthologies Critical Approaches to the Films of M. Night Shyamalan (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), Superhero Synergies: Comic Book Characters Go Digital (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014), and The X-Men Films: A Cultural Analysis (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016). His monograph on the 1960s Batman television series was published by Wayne State University Press in 2014. He is the editor of the anthology Make Ours Marvel: Media Convergence and a Comics Universe (University of Texas Press, 2017).
Matt’s writings on culture and film can be found journals such as, the European Journal of American Studies and the Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies, and in book chapters published by such notable presses as, the University of Texas Press, Wiley Blackwell, Rowman & Littlefied, and Palgrave Macmillan. Matt also has an extensive listing of professional paper presentations.

Announcing the The UT Biodesign Challenge Team, Madeline Tomczak, who graduated with a bachelor of science degree in environmental science in May; Domenic Pennetta, a sophomore majoring in art; Jesse Grumelot, who graduated in May with a bachelor of science degree in bioengineering; and Lucya Keune, a senior studying visual arts. The team competed on June 21 and 22, 2018 and are the winners of the Outstanding Field Research Award at the 2018 International Biodesign Challenge Summit in NYC. The Biodesign Challenge course was taught by Department of Art, assistant professors, Eric Zeigler and Brian Carpenter Read more…

SEPTEMBER 13-15

DOWNTOWN TOLEDO (PROMENADE PARK, IMAGINATION STATION OUTDOOR AREAS)

University of Toledo School of Visual and Performing Arts faculty and students are involved in the festival in a BIG way! We are presenting several attractions this year. Look for us on Saturday afternoon at the Mini Maker Faire (Noon-6 p.m.). The Faire is the Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth—a family-friendly showcase of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker Movement. It’s a place where people show what they are making, and share what they are learning. Makers range from tech enthusiasts to crafters to homesteaders to scientists to garage tinkerers. They are of all ages and backgrounds. The aim of Maker Faire is to entertain, inform, connect and grow this community.

UT ATTRACTIONS AT MOMENTUM

ALL TOGETHER NOW

JULIA LABAY DARRAH + YUSUF LATEEF (ALUMNA AND UT PART-TIME FACULTY)

All Together Now combines aspects of play, sculpture, and installation using interchangeable life-size forms. These lightweight sculptures will feature a conglomerate of images of the human body and will be placed on a stage, inviting participants to interact with the forms to create a “family photo”.

DIALOGUE WITH THE RIVER

BARBARA MINER (UT PROFESSOR OF ART, CHAIR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ART)

Dialogue With The River will be a group completed project, enabling hundreds of people to participate in the creation of an aesthetically engaging, temporary work of art. Based on Tibetan Prayer Flags, hand silk-screened flags with environmental information about the Maumee River and Lake Erie printed on the colorful fabric will be created. The flags will be available for individuals to write on and create “dialogues”, “wishes” or “pledges” for the health of the river and the lake. The customized flags will then be strung on the tent like uprights, creating a moving wind-driven sculpture. The idea is that the wind will carry the good wishes and the promises out into the world in hopes that the newly gained awareness of the river’s plight will influence the choices each of us makes. Didactic materials from regional and national groups such as Partners for Clean Streams, The Black Swamp Conservancy, and the Nature Conservancy will be available for visitors.

ECO PARADE

Eco Parade showcases our community water source biodiversity, ecological need, and health with aims at improving our collective relationship and stewardship of the system as a whole. The parade will feature large format puppets and performance, live music, and community created objects; everyone will be invited to participate in the processional.

BUBBLE BUTT

Players will work as a team to explore a surreal and humorous landscape as a pair of sentient pants. Players must work together by bouncing on a convoluted, two-person, human-powered interface to control each leg of the pants avatar as it journeys through a series of ridiculous obstacles and distractions. Enjoy this work on Saturday, September 15th at the Toledo Mini Maker Faire.

STEM

MATTHEW DANSACK + SEBASTIEN SCHOHN (UT ART ALUMNI)

Stem is a digital interactive media project using multiple song stems (tracks of one or two instruments used to make a song) to allow participants a chance to create new song compositions. By interacting with an installation of amps, record crates, and digital technology, users can arrange the stems to create and download a song. Special thank you to Vincent Chiaverini for guitar samples.

UT BIODESIGN CHALLENGE PROJECTS AND BIOMATERIAL DEMONSTRATIONS

Professors Brian Carpenter and Eric Zeigler, along with UT students, will present Biodesign Projects by student teams that will engage with the greater public in a dialogue about real-world issues and potential solutions through biotechnology. Students will exhibit their prototypes along with their research. Many of the prototypes made use of a 3D printer, CNC lasers, and CNC routers. Additionally, UT faculty Brian Carpenter and Eric Zeigler will be performing simple biomaterial demonstrations. These demonstrations explore low-tech methods and materials that encourage playful interactions, to stimulate creativity, enabling the end user to tinker, design and build their own devices and realize the potential of imagination.

Keep the creativity flowing this summer at art workshops presented by the Department of Art at The University of Toledo.

The workshops are for students of all ages and will take place at the Center for the Visual Arts on the University’s Toledo Museum of Art Campus. Different aspects of art will be explored: sculptures, ceramics, digital media and more.

Monday through Friday, June 4-8, two summer art camps will be held for elementary and middle school students. “Monster Hunters” will be held in the morning, while “Art Around the World” will take place during the afternoon.

Each session is $60 or $105 for both. All materials needed for projects are included, and supervision of children will be provided for students staying the entire day.

For high school students, two workshops will be held Monday through Friday, June 4-8. “Sculpture and Ceramics” will take place in the morning, and “Digital Media” will be held in the afternoon.

The “Sculpture and Ceramics” workshop will cost $75, while “Digital Media” is $60. The costs include all materials for required projects.

Lunch will not be provided during either workshop, so students are encouraged to bring a lunch and beverage.

(Exhibit is on display, however the opening reception has been postponed TFN – We will announce the rescheduling of this event.)

UT alumna and artist Leslie Adams will present an exhibition at the Center for the Visual Arts on the University’s Toledo Museum of Art Campus.

The exhibition, “The Handwritten Dreams Project,” will open Friday, June 1, and be on display through Saturday, July 7.

Adams will discuss her work Friday, June 1, at 5 p.m. in the Toledo Museum of Art Little Theatre.

A reception will follow the lecture from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Center for the Visual Arts Main Gallery.

“Drawing is my first love, but I’m infatuated with cursive — with signatures, poetry and long letters from friends — anything written in one’s own hand,” Adams said. “And I love dreams. I love the dreamers of dreams.

“A self-portrait, ‘Handwritten Dreams’ celebrates the hopes and aspirations that we, as children and adults, universally share. It is a drawing, installation and interactive work that provides the space and time where viewers can pause, reflect and write their own dreams on paper. Each then pins their hopes to an endlessly growing ‘wall of dreams’ in the symbolically staged 1970s’ classroom that I remember as a child,” she said.

“As a young school girl, I was taught to be curious, inspired to dream, and encouraged to record my dreams in perfect penmanship. It made them real,” Adams said. “I am so fortunate that my dream of becoming an artist came true, and my goal as an artist is to inspire others to believe in possibility.

“Reflecting on the great cursive debate confronting today’s society, ‘Handwritten Dreams’ seamlessly marries the elegance and beauty of line found in both cursive and drawing with the very marks that are the expressions of our individuality and pure imagination.”

In 2016, “Handwritten Dreams” was presented as part of ArtPrize Eight at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Mich. Over 19 days, 196,000 visitors to the museum viewed the work, and approximately 50,000 people recorded their hopes, dreams and aspirations, according to Adams.

“Through the beauty of line — from nearly indecipherable scribbles to precise manuscript writing and elegant cursive — individuals conveyed their dreams for themselves, their families and for our world,”

she said. “Subsequently, we are given a time capsule of our current culture. Because the dreams echo our lives. They anticipate our future.”

The artist would like to see the wall of dreams continue to grow. In April, a portion of the project was presented at the Portrait Society of America’s International Art of the Portrait Conference and more dreams were collected.

“I am grateful to the Center for the Visual Arts for inviting me to share the installation,” Adams said. “Before ‘The Handwritten Dreams Project’ travels to other venues throughout the world, I invite you to contribute to the work by taking a moment to share your handwritten dream.”

Adams followed her dream and pursued art. She received a bachelor of fine arts degree from UT in 1989 and in 1990 won the International Collegiate Competition in Figurative Drawing, which was sponsored by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. She was awarded the grand prize, a full tuition scholarship, which enabled her to attend the New York Academy of Art.

Since earning her master of fine arts degree from the academy, Adams has established herself as an eminent Ohio artist. She has been commissioned to paint more than a dozen official portraits for the state of Ohio. In addition to painting the most recent official gubernatorial portraits, she has portrayed many leaders of the Ohio State Senate, House of Representatives and the Supreme Court of Ohio. Adams also has received commissions from universities, corporations and institutions throughout the United States.

The recent years have characterized a significant turning point in Adams’ already successful career. Her major solo exhibition, “Leslie Adams, Drawn From Life,” part of the Toledo Museum of Art’s 2012 Fall Season of Portraiture, received both critical and public acclaim. As the exhibition was drawing to a close, greater recognition followed. Adams was one of 48 artists in the country whose work was selected for inclusion in the celebrated 2013 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. That same year, her work, “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl,” was awarded the William F. Draper Grand Prize in the Portrait Society of America’s 15th Annual International Portrait Competition.

The free, public exhibition can be viewed Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The basement of the Juvenile Justice Center served as an art studio for University of Toledo students enrolled in the “Media and Methods in Therapeutic Art” course, on Monday, April 2.

Instructor Renée Obrock had her students convene at the Juvenile Court, meeting up with court-involved youth and Probation staff Tim Bauerschmidt, Bill Weis, Lisa Demko, Kristen McClain, Angie Morgan, Elizabeth Sepeda, Kineka Wallace, and Ed Cox, and East Toledo Family Center staff, Makayla King, Onna Moore, and two interns.
The group activity involved a combination paint and resin pour on top of wood plaques. Over 60 wood plaques were prepared for the two different art sessions. The work space was broken up into stations for each of the precise steps involved: from mixing the paint, combining the components for the resin, to selecting paint colors and creating.

Ms. Obrock, who has a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts and a Masters of Art Education, said class, “Media and Methods in Therapeutic Art,” hadn’t met the minimum number of registrants in a while, so she created a flier to drum up participation. The flier, circulated beyond the Art Education department to the Psychology department, helped promote the class beyond the usual majors. In short order the class filled, resulting in an opportunity for expanding the teaching of therapeutic art to non-art majors. She first became aware of the Juvenile Court’s Positive Youth Justice focus in probation through Joe Szafarowicz.

While waiting, the UT students shared the stories of the paths that brought them to this particular class and inspired their career choice. One of the students shared that while on a mission trip to Central America a language barrier was easily hurdled by “communicating through doing,”
-Marty McIntyre, JJC

From the desk of the Arts Commission Director, Marc Folk:

April 2018 Newsletter

Community Collaborations

High school artist Lynwood Fisher (Rogers High School) with University of Toledo Professor of Art Thomas Lingeman. Lynwood
was recognized with the University of Toledo Department of Art Award during the 35th annual Ninth Congressional District
Invitational Art Exhibition. Photo credit: Tom Whalen

The Arts Commission values our continued and deepening partnership with the University of Toledo. We have collaborated with our UT neighbors on youth education programming, Art in Public Places conservation projects with Professor of Art Thomas Lingeman, Student Art League involvement in Momentum led by Associate Professor of Art Arturo Rodriguez, and many more examples. Our board of trustees also benefits from the inclusion of UT Department of Art Assistant Professor Dan Hernandez, currently serving as co-chair of the Art in Public Places committee.

Beginning in 2010, the Art Department has generously hosted the worksite of our Young Artists At Work (YAAW) program in their state of the art studio facilities. The YAAW apprentices benefit from their exposure to university studios, expert faculty and positive interactions with undergraduate art students. Access to digital technologies, printmaking presses and a professional gallery space provide opportunities for the YAAW apprentices to explore new visual art media and gain marketable job skills during their six-week summer employment with The Arts Commission.

Since 2007, The University of Toledo has annually sponsored monetary awards for The Ninth Congressional District Invitational Art Exhibition. Presented by Congresswoman Kaptur and The Arts Commission, this program invites high school artists who live in the Ninth Congressional District to showcase their talent in the form of two-dimensional visual artwork. Starting in 2016, The University of Toledo deepened their involvement with the program by integrating the exhibition design and installation of the Toledo portion of the Congressional exhibition into their Gallery Practice course curriculum.

The Arts Commission’s staff are thankful to work alongside many talented University of Toledo student interns. We applaud the university faculty for the contributions they have made in the lives of their students as they consider careers in the arts and culture sector.

We thank the University of Toledo Art Department for their many contributions to our community, continued partnership in supporting talented youth artists, and leadership in advocating for arts, culture and education.

A one-day public program that began in Detroit and finished in Toledo explored the impact of the African-American Great Migration on literary and musical expression in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan.

The program, “I Got a Lust for Life: The Unique Words and Sounds of Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan,” included panel discussions, poetry readings and musical performances on Saturday, Jan. 20, in Detroit at Wayne State University and in Toledo at the Toledo Lucas County Public Library and Toledo Museum of Art.

The program began in Detroit with panel discussion at Wayne State University’s Schaver Music Recital Hall. The panel included Ben Blackwell, co-founder of Third Man Records and official archivist for the White Stripes; John Gibbs Rockwood, Toledo author of the 2014 book “Can I Get a Witness” that features his photographs of iconic rock, pop, blues and folk musicians performing in the region during the early 1970s through the 2000s; Ramona Collins, Toledo-based popular jazz singer; and Oliver Ragsdale Jr., president of the Carr Center, a community hub for African-American artistic expression in Detroit.

“I Got a Lust for Life” then moved to Toledo, where Tyehimba Jess performed a poetry reading and held a book signing at the McMaster Center of the Toledo Lucas County Public Library. Jess is a 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning poet from Detroit whose work has focused on music, biography and African-American history. He read read from “Olio,” his award-winning collection of poetry that weaves together sonnet, song and narrative to examine the lives of mostly unrecorded, African-American performers from the Civil War to World War I.

McMaster Center, Main Library, Toledo Lucas County Public Library

The program concluded with a panel discussion in the Glass Pavilion of the Toledo Museum of Art with Jess; M.L. Liebler, a Detroit-based, award-winning poet and editor of the anthology “Heaven Was Detroit: From Jazz to Hip-Hop and Beyond”; Frances Brockington, associate professor of voice at Wayne State University; and Dr. Lee Ellen Martin, jazz vocalist and Jon Hendricks scholar. Mack and Duchan moderated the discussion, which was followed by a musical performance by UT Jazz students an alumni.

“I Got a Lust for Life: The Unique Words and Sounds of Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan” was sponsored by the Roger Ray Institute for the Humanities at The University of Toledo, which advocates for and supports the study of human culture — from a great variety of fields — at all levels of learning and scholarship. Additional support for the program was provided by UT, WSU, the Toledo Lucas County Public Library, Toledo.com and the Toledo Museum of Art.